As a message to blind haters of games they've never tried, I think this rings clear. However, to hard critics on the series who have hours and hours of online experience with COD, this is totally off target. COD's problem is the same as George Lucas, Blizzard, Portal, DragonAge, and anyone else who took a good idea and made it great: becoming an empire. Greed, commercialism, marketing, and hype at the expense of true innovation - and not technological innovation, I mean CORE innovation. Scrapping the old to make something genuinely fresh, and not just redone. What basic mechanics that made COD top the charts are now distinctly buried under a weak four to six hour campaign, cinematic wow factors, grinding achievements, flash and smoke, and new weapon skins that people pay 60 dollars for every few years to own. COD is becoming the MLB, NBA, FIFA, and NFL series of endless games that improve very little by adding more flash.

In case you

Trig0n:
Does anybody know the name of the song playing during the intro and credits? I didn't see its name mentioned anywhere.

On Topic though: I don't have a problem with COD as a game. But I just don't play live much because of those very vocal children, wich makes the game really not worth buying considering how the campaign isn't worth 60 dollars alone. I don't want anti-sematic drivel spouted at me every time I stab a guy.

Though I do have friends who are completely lovely people and play COD, though they agree with me about the screaming children.

In case you haven't found out by now, the song is by 'drill queen' called 'born depressed'.

There is nothing wrong with trying to defend something you like and that's what Jim is trying to do here. I wonder why so many people get upset over one man's opinion. Oh wait, I am still on the Escapist, right ?

The sole problem is see with the franchise (this far and since I haven't bought BLOPS) is the duration of the SP campaign. They better fix this with MW3. They had 2 years to do that.

Plus, anyone who can even fucking remember Tombi from the PSOne days is ok in my book. I still hated those railroad levels, though.

its not he fact the game is popular why i hate it (halo and BF fan boy here)
its the fact by the time MW2 came out and i played it did i realize how i much they were trying too hard at impressing us using the lowest common denominator.
the engine or graphics haven't been improved above re skinning
the story is either too stupid to shut off my suspension of disbelief or has down right obvious plot holes
the gameplay gets tedious after a while and doesn't really change up that much and doesn't even provide those odd death laughs enough to keep me from that hypnosis cause by a lack of juxtaposition
the story characters are unlikable in that we dont know who they are and they don't carry any personality.
the sound design is absolutely annoying in that they all sound like squeaky toys
the multiplayer is the same in that its spray and pray and it doesn't allow for smart team work outside of "RUSH THY ASS!!"

now granted games i do like are guilty of a few of these, but they aren't guilty of ALL of them and usually have something that honestly keeps me playing and lets me have fun.

I am liking this guy more and more. He speaks to highly of himself which is not needed but his views are spot on.

Mantonio:
It's not the fact that it's a huge thing ALONE that makes it shit. It's the fact that (like you said) because it is so big, so many other companies try to emulate it. Often alienating their original fans in the process and making a poorer product. Example: Bioware and Dragon Age 2.

It's like a videogame version of the Shoe Event Horizon.

Also, it is true that swearing teenagers are not the biggest part of CoDs audience. Unfortunately they are the loudest though.

Also, Jim, have I mentioned that with that outfit and flag behind you, you remind me of Norsefire from V for Vendetta?

excellent hitchhiker's reference, sir.

I just don't go for realistic shooters. Or realistic games, for that matter (I really like Borderlands, Viewtiful Joe, Team Fortress 2, Jet Grind Radio, etc.). Now, I'm not saying Call of Duty is bad. I just don't go for it. I believe I can say "it's not my thing" and not have my face lit on fire.

I'm not too keen on Shooters, mainly cause the point of it seems to be "shoot everything, do nothing else". While that might not be true of the story mode, the multiplayer seems to focus only on that. It's essencially that the system I'd have to work with is about as deep as a layer of rain on top of the road. And while the simplicity may be an up point for some, it's not for me. Which is why the only shooter I'd play is Fallout or some other one where there's RPG elements that are acctually seen in pressance.

Also a side note, while some or a majority of COD players may be okay people; there is the fact that the people who are the... not so savery types and... not so intelectual types... seem to be drawn to shooters exclusively (as far as I know). As of course no one seems to find them elsewhere. That may be bias from gamer media, but I have met a whole group of people who played ONLY COD who seem to be an entire group of 'hicks'. The kind of people who only like sport, dirty jokes, food, and barely anything else. Sort of an empty personality that spans the unsavory types far beyond COD.

However, although the 'Hicks' are only attracted to that type of game, I would like to point out they are not the only people the games attract. One friend of mine who is a music fan, actor, guitarist, interested in politics and more; he plays COD occasionally, although he's not much of a gamer. Quite often we debate politics, theoreticals, ethics, and the future of technology. Yes, a nice guy.

It's a good time to state my position. A complex neutral.

The things I don't like about COD are the community and the speed at which one dies. I find the game to be too realistic to my liking. I primarily enjoy games with shields and the like because of my deep roots as a star trek fan. I have never thought that three shots should drop a guy. The community completely turned me off from wanting to play online. I played maybe five matches. I had trouble getting kills and my team mates complained fairly often. I just wanted to play the game calmly but everyone was going with the "WTF that guy's a F**king F*g!" I later heard some white guy on my team call someone the N word. Seriously. Not cool. What's the point of playing a game when everyone gets aggressive and angry at every single bit of user error. As for your comment about everyone going around looking for the Rocket Launcher, Jim, I really enjoy Halo, but I do not ever play the regular game types. SWAT is by far my favourite(Yeah, I said I like shields).

Having played MW2 and BlOps, Yeah, I pretty much agree with everything that Jim said.

I do however hate CoD, but for completely different reasons.

There's aim assist (y'know that thing that I think is the most unintuitive thing that the games industry has ever created) that you can't turn off. (Okay, I willing to admit that this is something that other people don't have a problem with, but I still can't get over it and hate the whole series from 4 onward because of it)
Other than that, the idea of killstreaks is a horribly flawed idea to me because it means that the team that starts winning is going to keep winning and there's almost nothing the losing team can do, so they might as well just leave the game and try again.
The spawn system is absolutely awful, I've even had times where I spawned directly behind a guy and I mean RIGHT behind him, and I've had the same happen to me.
The level design for the maps can be really bad in some spots, like that one two-level building in skidrow, or the entirety of rust.
Some weapons are overpowered, like the famas in BlOps or... well take your pick in MW2. I mean, how can I run around with nothing but a knife and routinely be at the top of the scoreboard? Is everyone else a drooling retard? Or is commando really overpowered?
Then there's the lack of dedicated servers. None in MW2 was pushing it. None in BlOps was REALLY pushing it and now there's not going to be any in MW3!? Yeah, sorry boys but quite simply: Fuck that noise.

I don't neccecarily "like" CoD, but thats not BECAUSE it's CoD. I just don't care for those types of games. Just like Halo or Modern Warfare don't interest much either; I don't think they're bad games, i just didn't care for them personnally

I bought Black Ops last year and had a really good time with the multiplayer. But the singleplayer didn't really do it for me because the story is kinda like a B-movie that takes itself way to seriously. The zombie cut-scene at the end really made up for that though.

Then there is also the fact that I prefer my FPS SP to be more of the old school kinda like quake or Duke Nukem 3D.

Either way, I always found it kinda stupid that people act like snobs over videogames that people buy just because they want to play virtual dodge-ball with guns. I do enjoy some of the pretentious and quirky titles of the industry, though.

People just need to learn to relax.

I agree with allot of what he says. Although I don't want a new cod every year I still enjoy the series to this day.

Ah this is the first video I've seen that I don't agree with. Jim made a lot of really good points, but I hate Call of Duty and I have a few reasons why.

Most of the praise the games gets are for its multiplayer, however the game is marketed as a single player game. Everyone was telling how good the game was so when spent about $60 to get it and that was the cheapest price I could find it at. I live in Australia and most games here including COD are about $100 each.

So anyway, I found the single player to be very boring and liner. Not that there's anything wrong with a game being liner but in COD I could really feel it. Any attempt to play the game my way relisted in death. I had to play it its way or die. As a result I found the game to be very shallow, and since I don't play games online, I felt ripped off. This was Modem Warfare 1 that I played and thought it was rubbish.

Onto copy cat publishers: well yes you can't blame infinity ward for everyone trying to copy them but you can blame a little of it on the people who buy call of Duty. See publishers will always copy the biggest selling game and will continue to do so as long as it continues to make money. If people simply didn't copy copy cat games that offer more of the same then there'd be more game like Time Splitters.

Time Splitters is one of my all time favorite game, and the lead designer as said that there will never be a Time Splitters 4 because publishers are only interested is game like COD and not quiky FPS that do things a little differently. So yeah I hate COD I hate how popular it is and how it continues to make money through simply copying and pasting. I hate the fact that it's so expensive and has nothing to offer a single player. I feel if COD was never made that FPS would be better. I find myself owning a powerful PC and using it to play old shooters from the 90s.

http://www.edge-online.com/news/free-radical-founder-pretty-much-every-fps-loses-money

http://www.edge-online.com/features/free-radicals-founder-leaving-fps-behind

I get the fact why COD is popular, but I'm telling the truth when I say I've been on online COD games and spat on, insulted, being called a whore etc etc was a regular thing. For me, my experience of COD kiddies are real, therefore, they are. I strongly disagree Jim's explanation of them. Sure there are noobs. Sure there are nice, normal people. But norms become norms because they occur with such regularity that they change the face and reputation of a game.